Seismic Design of Piles in Liquefiable Soils

Abstract

Lands around the coasts are often reclaimed, contain fill materials/loose fills and therefore potentially liquefiable under moderate to strong shaking. Collapse and/or severe damage to pile-supported structures are still observed in liquefiable soils after most major earthquakes e.g. the 2011 Japan earthquake, 2010 Chile earthquake, the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake, the 2004 Sumatra earthquake, the 2001 Bhuj earthquake, the 1995 Kobe earthquake. Poor performance of pile foundations remains a great concern to the earthquake engineering community. A comprehensive overview of pile damages observed in the recent earthquakes is presented in this paper. This paper also critically reviews all the established pile failure theories. Deficiencies of the existing pile failure theories are highlighted. Various analyses procedures for piles in liquefiable soils are discussed.

BTL Committee. (2000). Study on liquefaction and lateral spreading in the 1995 Hyogoken-Nambu earthquake. Building Research Report No 138, Building Research Institute, Ministry of Construction, Japan (in Japanese).